48 research outputs found
McNair Research Journal - Summer 2015
Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program
Table of Contents
Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair
Statements:
Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President
Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs
Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach
Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach
McNair Scholars Institute Staf
Key questions in marine mammal bioenergetics
This work was funded by the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC19-173). The Office of Naval Research funded the bioenergetic workshop (N000142012392) that provided support for this work.Bioenergetic approaches are increasingly used to understand how marine mammal populations could be affected by a changing and disturbed aquatic environment. There remain considerable gaps in our knowledge of marine mammal bioenergetics, which hinder the application of bioenergetic studies to inform policy decisions. We conducted a priority-setting exercise to identify high-priority unanswered questions in marine mammal bioenergetics, with an emphasis on questions relevant to conservation and management. Electronic communication and a virtual workshop were used to solicit and collate potential research questions from the marine mammal bioenergetic community. From a final list of 39 questions, 11 were identified as âkeyâ questions because they received votes from at least 50% of survey participants. Key questions included those related to energy intake (prey landscapes, exposure to human activities) and expenditure (field metabolic rate, exposure to human activities, lactation, time-activity budgets), energy allocation priorities, metrics of body condition and relationships with survival and reproductive success and extrapolation of data from one species to another. Existing tools to address key questions include labelled water, animal-borne sensors, mark-resight data from long-term research programs, environmental DNA and unmanned vehicles. Further validation of existing approaches and development of new methodologies are needed to comprehensively address some key questions, particularly for cetaceans. The identification of these key questions can provide a guiding framework to set research priorities, which ultimately may yield more accurate information to inform policies and better conserve marine mammal populations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment: Exploring Fundamental Symmetries of the Universe
The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the
dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for
life and whether protons eventually decay --- these mysteries at the forefront
of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early
evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The
Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed
plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions. LBNE
is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, high-intensity
neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi
National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a near neutrino detector just downstream
of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed
as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research
Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in
Lead, South Dakota, is approximately 1,300 km from the neutrino source at
Fermilab -- a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino
charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet
cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can
accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions. With its exceptional
combination of experimental configuration, technical capabilities, and
potential for transformative discoveries, LBNE promises to be a vital facility
for the field of particle physics worldwide, providing physicists from around
the globe with opportunities to collaborate in a twenty to thirty year program
of exciting science. In this document we provide a comprehensive overview of
LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the landscape of neutrino physics
worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate and the capabilities it will
possess.Comment: Major update of previous version. This is the reference document for
LBNE science program and current status. Chapters 1, 3, and 9 provide a
comprehensive overview of LBNE's scientific objectives, its place in the
landscape of neutrino physics worldwide, the technologies it will incorporate
and the capabilities it will possess. 288 pages, 116 figure
Recommended from our members
Reconstructing and Reprogramming the Tumor-Propagating Potential of Glioblastoma Stem-like Cells
Developmental fate decisions are dictated by master transcription factors (TFs) that interact with cis-regulatory elements to direct transcriptional programs. Certain malignant tumors may also depend on cellular hierarchies reminiscent of normal development but superimposed on underlying genetic aberrations. In glioblastoma (GBM), a subset of stem-like tumor-propagating cells (TPCs) appears to drive tumor progression and underlie therapeutic resistance, yet remain poorly understood. Here, we identify a core set of neurodevelopmental TFs (POU3F2, SOX2, SALL2, OLIG2) essential for GBM propagation. These TFs coordinately bind and activate TPC-specific regulatory elements, and are sufficient to fully reprogram differentiated GBM cells to âinducedâ TPCs, recapitulating the epigenetic landscape and phenotype of native TPCs. We reconstruct a network model that highlights critical interactions and identifies novel therapeutic targets for eliminating TPCs. Our study establishes the epigenetic basis of a developmental hierarchy in GBM, provides detailed insight into underlying gene regulatory programs, and suggests attendant therapeutic strategies
Processes In Complex Team Problem-Solving: Parsing And Defining The Theoretical Problem Space
Historically, when studying a given phenomenon, scientists typically focus on either a fine-grained level of analysis or a broad conceptualization of the issues associated with their domain of study. The former approach is characterized as a micro-level approach, whereas the latter is described as a macro-level approach. More recently, researchers have suggested that the scientific community needs to attend to inter-relations among these levels. The goal is to better understand the coupling among these levels so as to better clarify their interactions and the impact of each level on the other (Liljenström and Svedin 2005). In this chapter we discuss one such current conceptualization, that of the term macrocognition and its related concepts. This chapter represents an extension of some of the prior theorizing on macrocognition where the term is used to capture cognition in collaborative contexts (Warner, Letsky and Cowen 2005) and encompasses both internalized and externalized processes occurring during team interaction. These processes include not only internalized individual processes such as mental model development, but also externalized processes such as solution alternative negotiation (see Letsky, Warner, Fiore, Rosen and Salas 2007). We take the next step in this definitional exercise and consider a refinement of definitions from the literature. Specifically, we attempt to reify them within the context of what Letksy et al. (2007) have described as internalized and externalized cognition. Further, we attempt to describe these not only sequentially, but also dynamically and iteratively, in order to more clearly convey the inter-relations among macrocognitive processes as teams work through the problem-solving process